If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

I suggest installing the doorbell unit that are sold at Lowe's or Home Depot that have a wireless camera that can be connected to a unit to record and send a picture to you to see everyone coming to your door.
They have small wireless cameras that you can install around your home with digital recorder.

If you think postal workers or others are stealing your packages contact the postal inspectors to be alerted to spot check when packages are being delivered. We only use the priority mail flat rate packages that have a tracking number with insurance.

I suggest installing the doorbell unit that are sold at Lowe's or Home Depot that have a wireless camera that can be connected to a unit to record and send a picture to you to see everyone coming to your door.
They have small wireless cameras that you can install around your home with digital recorder.

That reminds me of a recent experience I had with house wiring...

Back in November, my wife and took a trip for a week or so. Before leaving, we did the usual things like storing the spare keys to the house and cars in the safe and the garage door remote "someplace safe". Well, despite 2 months of searching, we were not able to find the garage door remote. There is not a hard wired switch to the garage door inside the house (there is one in the garage though). We had always just used the remote for opening the garage from the house. My wife had finally given up on the search for the remote control, so she said she would help me run the wire for a hardwired control.

I figured all I need to do was run a single wire pair from the garage to the house via the attic of the breezeway that goes between the two... Sounds pretty simple, right? Run the wire through the breezeway attic, drop it down the wall to where the light switches are already at, and install it as a small momentary contact switch.

Sounds a lot easier than it ended up being...

First problem was that there was a fire break where the breezeway attached to the garage... Once through it, I see that there is no way that I'm going to be crawling through that small area, so I think that maybe I can get some pieces of PVC pipe and snake it through there. Shining a light though there though shows yet another firebreak about a third of the way down there and the existing wires running underneath it, so that route doesn't look promising. Since there is a light fixture in the middle of the breezeway, I figure I might be able to remove the light and electrical box that it is attached to and put my hand in there to grab the PVC pipe that was shoved through from either end. Once I removed the light, I discover that it is not hooked to an electrical box, but rather just screwed directly into the plywood that makes up the ceiling of the breezeway and there is maybe a 3/4" hole in the plywood for the wires to run though. So much for that idea...

The power for the house starts in the garage and then all the wires get distributed from the panel there through the breezeway into the rest of the house, so there's quite a few wires going through the breezeway. Same goes for the phone wires and cable TV coax. They all seem to be stapled to the ceiling joists in the breezeway since when I tug on the wires, there is no slack. Eventually, I find an abandoned telephone wire that goes to the telephone junction box, but is not connected, and it goes though the breezeway. It also appears to have some slack in it, so I figure there's a chance that I might be able to either use it to drag a new wire through the breezeway, or, if at least one pair of the 6 conductors in the telephone wire is good, repurpose it for control of the garage door. I figured that at least one pair in that cable was bad and that is why it had been disconnected at sometime in the past. So, I pulled that end of the wire back into the garage and wired it so that the solid white w/ color stripes were connected together and the solid colors w/ white stripes were connected. It's pretty low voltage for this signal, so even a single pair from that wire would have been enough.

So, then onto the "fun" part -- climbing into the attic to trace down where that wire went. Of course, due to the slope of the roof, it was not possible to get all the way to the edge where the wires came into the attic of the house, but I eventually figured out which wire was the one I was interested it. Then a bunch of crawling around near the eave of the house following that wire to see what it went to. Eventually, I determine that it is going somewhere that is currently covered by wiring that I have added from a commercial telephone distribution type panel, so I cut the wire at a place where it will still be easy to access at a later date if so needed.

With the free end that now goes to the garage door opener, I tie it to a rod and try to drop it down to a hole that I added to the inside of one of the light switch boxes in the house. I had originally wanted to put it on one of the switches by the rear door, but due to the slope of the roof, it was not possible to get into that area. It wasn't that easy even where I ended up putting it since there was 2 ft from where I was laying to where the wires went though the wall's 2x4 top plate due to the rooms having 8 ft walls, but then 45 degree angles up to a 10 ft actual ceiling. It took a long time and was rather painful laying across those ceiling joists while trying to poke that rod down the existing hole in the top plate in the hope of hitting that hole in the switch box.

So, after 4.5 hours of this, I finally have a wire in the house at a light switch and it soldered to a momentary contract switch installed in a light switch outlet. My wife actually helped in the attic some by watching for which wire moved when I pulled on another one and the same thing in the garage. She now realizes why I procrastinate doing anything that involves getting into the attic.

Total cost? About $0.15 for the switch (which I had bought off of eBay in a 10 piece lot for an Arduino project), the two dots of solder to connect the wires, and a couple of inches of electrical tape. AND quite a few beers afterwards as I cussed the builder and his workers for leaving nails sticking out at wrong places and the roofers for having having nails so long that the perforated my head numerous times. And a couple of days of grunting from pain every time I move thanks to having to crawl around on the various 2x?s that were used as ceiling joints.

So, as much as I wouldn't want wireless cameras or other things around the house, I will admit that it can be less painful to install them in certain situations. Well, unless you don't have an electrical outlet near where you want the camera and you need to still run electrical power to it. From a security standpoint, a wired system is probably going to be better.